March_Announcements

March Announcements

"We must be willing to get rid of the life we have planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us" author Joseph Campbell

March 1 & 2 Workshop for Married Women

The March workshop was filled with participants from all over the country. The women who experienced the weekend describe it best. I’d like to share some of their words:

“To sit in a room with all of these kindred spirits and feel safe enough to ‘throw my soul on the floor’ was so rewarding and a gift I cannot ever repay...I want the integrity and honesty back in my life. I’m tired of living two lives. It’s time to reshape my life.”

“When the workshop started I wrote down ‘I need clarity, strength and courage too move forward in my life. To get off the fence.’ Through the workshop I was able to gain a lot of clarity, strength and courage that I know will carry me through the road ahead.”

“I have cried for months--weepy, sad, pitying tears, but this weekend I cried more than I ever have--cleansing, purifying, heart wrenching tears. But I also laughed-- cleansing, purifying, joyful laughter! More than I have in ages. I’m done with weepy tears. I want to cry tears like I did this weekend. Tears with a purpose, I suppose.”

“The workshop was amazing. I have been working through a lot over the past year, and this weekend it just seemed to all come together. Thank you to you and your colleagues for providing a safe place for all of us to continue doing this work.”

June 7 & 8 Workshop for Married Women

It’s time to get your registrations in for the June workshop. Get your online brochure with details and registration instructions by going to www.lavendervisions.com. Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions regarding the weekend.

I want to clarify that the weekend workshop is specifically for married, or recently separated or divorced women who are still facing the issues of working out life after acknowledging an attraction to other women. Girlfriends will not be a part of the workshop.

Some thoughts for anyone facing the coming out process:

I received a letter from a woman who has struggled with guilt and sadness for years in her process of coming out after marriage. Recently she wrote to a mentor from whom she has found inspiration and spiritual guidance from afar to ask for her help.

With this woman’s permission, I am reprinting a few ideas from Joan Chittister, a Benedictine nun who works for world peace and against oppression of women worldwide. Her thoughts about this woman’s process of coming out are quite universal:

“The real problem is not so much who we are, provided that we are not destructive to others, but who we become as a result of it. The real problem is also, however, that when we change, we change everyone else around us, too. They will each need to make a decision about what makes themselves most human, most good, most God-like. It is their change or inability to change that is really the most difficult thing for you.”

“You (married women in this coming out process) are simply early comers to a new moment in time. You are the people facing a question most people never even dreamed really existed before but is now becoming a clear dimension of humanity that affects the self-definition of us all and the nature of our institutions, as well. The in-between times--the time between this consciousness and society’s adjustment to it--are not easy, however.
But new life, new life definitions, new life insights are a very lonely place to be, however courageous we may be in the process.”

“You left ties that still exist for you. The loneliness is as real as the honesty and the freedom, the love and the comfort that you have bought at great price. So the question is not whether or not you did the “right” thing. You did the only thing you could do to bring the inside and the outside of yourself together. The real question now is simply can you live with this while the rest of the world around you deals with it?”

With these words, I leave you to ponder and hope that they will provide some light for those on the coming out journey.

Please contact me for information about phone consultations, supervision, therapy support groups or workshops.

Stay Well!

Joanne

www.lavendervisions.com
215 248-0844

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